OJ + Creatine

..= useless?

I've heard a lot of hate towards mixing creatine with OJ, because it apparently is too acidic, causing the creatine to change into creatinine which is useless. This seemed silly to me, because the stomach is more acidic than OJ, yeah? Most of the things I've read have only been articles where people just claim that, but haven't provided any studies to prove that is the case.

Can anyone give me an answer on this? preferably with a source too :smile:

PS: Is dextrose the best choice for mixing with creatine? I've heard that thrown around as well. Would like to have some clarification on this too.

PPS: This is probably a shitty thread. I tried to PM a couple of people who seemed most knowledgable on this subject, but it wouldn't let me

I've heard a lot of hate towards mixing creatine with OJ, because it apparently is too acidic, causing the creatine to change into creatinine which is useless. This seemed silly to me, because the stomach is more acidic than OJ, yeah? Most of the things I've read have only been articles where people just claim that, but haven't provided any studies to prove that is the case.

Can anyone give me an answer on this? preferably with a source too :smile:

I haven't found a source that I'd consider authoritative yet, but everything I've seen says that the pH of the contents of the stomach is usually around 1 (see this, I guess). It can temporarily change when you eat something that buffers the acid, but that's not pertinent here.

Lowest listed pH for orange juice here is 3.3. That's more than a hundred times less acidic.

Anyways, it looks like the whole pH thing comes from salesmen trying to charge more for their creatine products because they've added alkalines, etc. I don't think there's any truth to it.

Originally Posted by zander

PS: Is dextrose the best choice for mixing with creatine? I've heard that thrown around as well. Would like to have some clarification on this too.

Dextrose and glucose are two names for the same sugar. The idea is that if you boost your blood glucose levels, your blood insulin levels will increase to balance this effect, and the extra insulin will cause more creatine to be transported into muscle cells. This, to the best of my knowledge, is fairly non-controversial. But before you rush out to buy some "100% Pure L-Dextrose supplement", consider the following:

-most digestible carbohydrates wind up being turned into glucose at one point or another - it's just a question of how fast
-my hypothesis is that juices will convert more quickly than solid fruits because the cell walls are already smashed and the carbs are pre-dissolved
-the glucose/insulin response should (IIRC) vary with dose - in other words, if you want to boost your insulin by X%, you could take Y grams of a carbohydrate with a peak insulin spike of N, or 2Y grams of a carbohydrate with a peak insulin spike of N/2.

In other words, table sugar should work fine. Same with chocolate milk. Fruit juice might if it's carb-heavy.